Future city hall
Certain sectors including two city councilors are not favorable to the planned transfer of Iloilo City Hall to the Megaworld property in the old airport site in Mandurriao district. One of their contentions is that businesses in the downtown area, particularly Calle Real (now JM Basa Street), would all vanish once the city hall is removed from the area. Well, in reality businesses in JM Basa, formerly considered as the city's business district, had long been vanished since the arrival of malls in the city. Apparently, the JM Basa stores, mostly owned by Filipino-Chinese businessmen, are no match to the good amenities of the malls. Besides, the city hall practically no longer exist in the Plaza Libertad area for several months (may be a year?) already. The city's executive department now hold office at the third floor of Robinsons Mall. As for the legislative department, it has moved out of the Plaza Libertad area since the time of former Mayor Mansing Malabor. First, it occupied the third floor of Marymart Mall until it transferred to the second floor of the Iloilo Terminal Market during Mayor Treñas' time. Simply said, moving out the city hall from the Plaza Libertad area is not a problem at all. It's even more problematic if we let city hall stay in the Plaza Libertad area as the space is limited. As the city progresses we also need a city hall that could meet the needs of the people as well as a show window of the city. So, putting up the city hall in the former airport site in Mandurriao district is the right decision. Businesses in Calle Real should not cause a hindrance to the city's development. For sure, they will continue to exist in the area. Just imagine if Iloilo City would have a city hall like that of Bacolod City's New Government Center!
Disastrous
Businessmen and residents in the city are suffering from exorbitant power rate—the highest in the country if not the whole of Asia. Imagine power consumers here are paying P13.00 per kilowatt hour for electricity! In contrast, power consumers outside of the city pay only around P4.00 per kilowatt hour while in Bacolod City they pay around P5.00 per kilowatt hour. See the difference? No wonder some businessmen here have transferred their operations outside the city and some even in Bacolod. Do our city officials also have a feel of this disastrous situation?